Various forms of seal assemblies heretofore have been used between stationary housing portions and shafts rotatable relative to the housing portions. These seal assemblies have included stationary annular seal members carried by the corresponding housing portions and which are free floating and spring and/or hydraulic pressure urged toward a companion rotating annular member. The companion rotating seal members heretofore have been either spring or hydraulic pressure urged toward a stationary mating face and in some instances have been fixed to the rotating housing by enclamping, fastening or other holding methods in an axial direction. However, these previously known forms of rotating seal members are subject to distortion in axial or diametrical directions and are thus difficult to construct with minimum runout.
Examples of previously known forms of seal assemblies including some of the general structural and operational features of the instant invention are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,020,052, 3,420,535, 3,765,689 and 3,972,536.